Could Trevor Larnach Net Minnesota Twins a Trade Offer Worth Taking?

28 minutes ago, Heiny said:

Ok, I will agree.  Just getting a little discourged with this team and management/front office.

I got ya. Well, if it’s any consolation Jenkins is holding his own as a 20yo at AA and Culpepper is demolishing AA as a 22yo that looks to be able to stick at SS. That’s a positive for sure!

30 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

Posted this in another thread. I am curious if Larnach can be used as bait to reel in another current MLB player? My example was Pittsburgh who can’t develop a position player to save their lives. So maybe they will be interested in an established player like Larnach in exchange for Henry Davis since he is floundering as a former 1st overall pick. 

Great idea to get a MLB player, Vanimal. I agree that it seems that PIT has problems developing positional players (they used to have problems developing pitchers). But they seem not to have any problems developing catchers. Endy Rodriguez skyrocketed through their system defensively & offensively. SF gave up on Joey Bart, PIT picked him up & became one of their best players. Great rationale, but IMO, if PIT can't do anything with him, I'd steer clear.

Going to be hard to sell Larnach as a LF, he has only started 15 games there, behind Bader (55) and Castro (25). He has started 29 games in RF, behind Wallner (42), but 18 of those starts came while Wallner was on the IL. He has negative value in the OF at both corner positions, but hits above league average. Over half of his starts, 45/89, have been at DH, where he is well below league average at the plate. Not sure how much value he has in a trade. 

I agree that we are pretty deep in the OF, so trading Larnach would make sense. But I don't blame the core for our problems. But I don't count Larnach as part of the core. I agree that we have to shake up this team & change our identity of slow big bats. We need better defense, better baserunners & clutch hitters, that's who we should focus on. We can get more for Wallner, so I'd target him 1st & even package him up with an expiring contract to maximize their value . But all this trade talk with no objective is fruitless. Trade just for trade's sake will do us no good. If there is no avenue of a young impact MLB-ready catcher, that is where our priority should be at, 2nd impact MLB-ready pitching. Our window is still open once we change management.

41 minutes ago, arby58 said:

Seems like a weird deal. First, Cruz is performing much better at the MLB level than Larnach. Emma actually has a greater trade surplus value according to the Baseball Trade Simulator (Cruz 33.5, Emma 38.5), but I don't totally buy that, given Emma's injury issues. When you also toss in Wallner, though, the deal becomes horribly lop-sided, and not in the Twins favor. Cruz is a nice player, but you don't give up that much outfield capital for a player with a 1.2 WAR and 103 OPS+ in 2025.

My idea for the deal was to get a MLB player that does things the Twins roster doesn't do, play good defense, and is fast and has power, while reducing the players on the 40 man roster. My thought was that Pitt wouldn't get rid of him without getting two major league players or one and one top prospect. I am willing to overpay to do this, maybe remove EROD and add another prospects (GG)? 

1 minute ago, Vanimal46 said:

Another example team I thought of is Atlanta. They’re having a more disappointing season than us, but they’re too heavily invested in their core to give up on 2026. They’re struggling big time to find an answer in LF (Verdugo, Kelenic, Eli White all struggling, Profar suspended). They have a young C in Drake Baldwin that’s doing well in his first 71 MLB games, and blocked by Sean Murphy who’s signed through 2028. 

Maybe we can a package together where it benefits both teams who want to continue trying to win in 2026? 

I've had my eye on Baldwin for a while; he's great. But ATL is not going to give him up. He's now their #1 catcher. There was talk of them trading Sean Murphy, but I've heard now that ATL isn't interested.

CWS has 2 outstanding rookie catchers, Oscar Quero & Teel. They've stated they are open to trading one of them to diversify their rebuild. CWS won't trade with MN, but if we pull off a trade like NYY did with us. When MN traded Garver to TX for Falefa & MN turned around & NYY got their target Falefa. If a team wants Jax, Duran or Wallner have them acquire one those CWS catcher, secretly. Then include that catcher in a trade. A young impact MLB-ready catchers are hard to come by so any way we can obtain one we have to do it.  

I have long said that corner OF that are not elite at something are a dime a dozen. Larnach is average so he has almost no value. He is completely a replacement level player.  If another team sees any value in him in a trade you jump at it.  He should be a DFA/non-tender next year for us.  He has never developed into the hitter we expected.  The only value he offers, which is almost none, is that he hits slightly better against right handers than average.  That is to be expected, but he is not elite at it.  So even a platoon fit is not there. If a team is offering any level of an actual prospect made the trade in a heart beat. 

Other than being large, left handed subpar corner outfielders both owned by the Twins, Wallner and Larnach are really not the same, or even similar players.

Larnach has fairly good contact skills, and will likely always hit for a higher average than Wallner.  But that's about his only advantage.  Wallner has more speed (relative, not saying he is fast, just that Larnach is a snail by outfielder standards), a far better arm, more power, takes more walks, and at this point has more upside.  Both struggle vs LHP, but here again Larnach is worse.  Larnach is kind of a known quantity after 1400 PA's.  That doesn't mean he can't get better, but it isn't very likely.  Wallner has only 800 PA, essentially a full season less.  He might get better, or he might not.  Defensively, nothing will make Larnach faster or improve his arm.  In theory, Wallner can learn to take better routes. 

I find it a bit odd that some seem to think Larnach is having a decent year.  Playing mostly DH, he has an OPS+ of 96.  Wallner is at 105.  Wallner also has more WAR despite missing a month on the IL.

Either can be traded if the return is right.  Wallner should bring back more.  I find it a little odd that some actually prefer Larnach as a player though.  

Of the at least thirteen players that are on the TD trading block, where would you prioritize energy spent and leadership involvement in finding a good deal for Larnach?

The 13 I have seen…

Coulombe, Bader, Castro, Paddack, Vazquez, France, Ryan, Duran, Jax, Martin, Julien, Miranda, Larnach.

59 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

He's about 100x better than what Philly has had for three years now, and they are competing for WS. He absolutely has value to them. How much value is the question....You want to DFA a 1.5-2 win player (which he was last year)? Unreal.

we can't have articles complaining about payroll and then ignore what Larnach costs for what he returns, we (mostly probably me) can't complain about the 40 man and then continue to clog it up with marginal or slightly average players. We can't talk about getting the young guys up then say marginal or average players can't be let go. If Jenkins (or Erod) is starting next year which IMO one absolutely should be, what is the point of having Larnach on the team? (platoon dh?) Which is why I said trade him for whatever or include him with others to get a better return. 

Or the can do what they did with Polanco pick up a big salary and pay pennies on the dollar in a trade later. 

6 minutes ago, jorgenswest said:

Of the at least thirteen players that are on the TD trading block, where would you prioritize energy spent and leadership involvement in finding a good deal for Larnach?

The 13 I have seen…

Coulombe, Bader, Castro, Paddack, Vazquez, France, Ryan, Duran, Jax, Martin, Julien, Miranda, Larnach.

IMO, probably 3rd, behind Jax and Duran. the FA to be should be just handling incoming calls. Martin, Miranda and Julien are a waste of time unless they can be packaged with another trade. I am not spending any time on Ryan, because the only way I am trading him is if somebody comes calling with an offer I couldn't refuse. 

IMO Larnach shouldn't be on the team next year and I don't want to lose him for nothing. 

18 minutes ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

IMO, probably 3rd, behind Jax and Duran. the FA to be should be just handling incoming calls. Martin, Miranda and Julien are a waste of time unless they can be packaged with another trade. I am not spending any time on Ryan, because the only way I am trading him is if somebody comes calling with an offer I couldn't refuse. 

IMO Larnach shouldn't be on the team next year and I don't want to lose him for nothing. 

I would prioritize differently. I would focus on the expiring assets that I can’t trade after the deadline. To me it is a good deadline if they get good deals for those six and use the two months  remaining to give a shot to players in AAA.

Larnach would be way down on my list and not a priority.

2 minutes ago, jorgenswest said:

I would prioritize differently. I would focus on the expiring assets that I can’t trade after the deadline. To me it is a good deadline if they get good deals for those six and us the two months  remaining to give a shot to players in AAA.

Larnach would be way down on my list and not a priority.

I agree on priority of trading players, but the question was - prioritize energy spent and leadership involvement

And if the Twins are combing though all rosters and their minor league teams looking for their FA to be, that IMO seems counter productive, combing though the minor league teams that come calling is a better use of time IMO. With Jax and Duran I would assume every team in contention and even larger market teams will call, so I am spending my time looking at players in their minors that I would be willing to trade for. But if only one team comes calling for France then you take what they offer or spend a few minutes coming up with a counter. 

17 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

I'm going to guess here.....and maybe when gleeman and the geek talked to levine they heard this, but I'm guessing every single player on every single team (majors and minors) is in a database the TWins have, and they aren't "looking at hte players" other than maybe having some scouts eyeball them a bit. I just think, and I could be wrong, they already know everything there is to publicly know about every player out there for the most part.

I was thinking about that conversation also. The take that stuck with me was how many conversations it took to make a deal. It was my take on that podcast that led me to my push today for focus on these deals. They have a high number of expiring contracts and getting the best they can on those six would be a great accomplishment.

They also need a catcher and those six alone seem unlikely to bring back that catcher.  Maybe they have a catcher they believe in that is not ranked in top 100s but can be acquired for one of these six. It could be that adding Larnach to a Coulombe deal might push to a catcher that they like. It could be that they need to deal Jax to get that catcher. I don’t think Larnach on his own will get that catcher. I suppose he might be worth Luis Campusano if the Twins felt they could get the talent out of the one time top catching prospect.

I would put all of the energy into trading the six and I will add the focus of acquiring a catcher. Duran and Ryan were not in the top 100 and were acquired in deals for players with expiring contracts. The clock is ticking in those six assets. The others can be dealt in the future.